


Haunted Howl

by tabbytabbytabby



Series: Sterek Week '18 [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Fluff, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Humor, M/M, Sterek Week 2018, SterekHalloween4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 01:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16483649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/pseuds/tabbytabbytabby
Summary: After all the things they've seen, Stiles finds the haunted houses he and Derek are visiting on Halloween to be a little boring. He might be wishing for boring, after word gets to them about a real ghost siting a town over. Or maybe it's exactly what Stiles needs to put things into perspective.





	Haunted Howl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ithinkwehaveanemergency](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/gifts).



> For Day 7 of Sterek Week: Halloween
> 
> For Adri, who prompted this. Even if I did go little away from it in the end. I hope you like it <3
> 
> This fic has not been beta read, so any mistakes are my own. If you see any, please let me know and I'll get them fixed.

“You know, after everything we’ve faced these haunted houses just seem kind of… boring.” Stiles sighs, glancing forlornly up at the house they’re leaving. The people running it really had given it their best shot, and to anyone unaware of the supernatural it probably really was quite scary. But unfortunately Stiles knows better. It’s and to be scared of their werewolves when he had a werewolf right next to him.

Derek shrugs, “I’ll take boring over the real any day. At least in this case.”

“Yeah but can you imagine a real haunted house?” Stiles asks. “How cool would that be?”

“Our definitions of cool seem to be very different,” Derek tells him.

Stiles snorts, “Yeah well I knew _that_. But come on, Der. Having to deal with real ghosts? That’s new. It’s been a while since we had something new.”

Derek frowns down at him, “I wasn’t aware you were that bored with our life.”

Stiles stops suddenly, turning to face Derek. “That’s not what I’m saying _at all._ I love our life. All of it. Just the monsters are getting a little repetitive. It’s…”

“Boring?” Derek finishes. When Stiles nods, Derek sighs and takes his face in his hands. “Can we just please enjoy the moments of peace when we have them? Please? I’d rather have boring and repetitive monsters than something really dangerous that could put your life at risk.”

Stiles puts his hand over Derek’s and smiles, “When you put it like that…”

Derek smiles and kisses him softly, “Do you want to try another one or go home?”

Stiles opens his mouth to answer, only to stop when someone screams from down the road. “Ghost! There’s a ghost!”

Derek closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, “This is your fault.”

“I don’t see how,” Stiles says, though he sounds a little too hopeful. “But I suppose we should check it out, right?”

Derek sighs, “I was afraid you’d say that.”

They make their way down the street to where the girl is standing, surrounded by a group of people. She’s in the middle of telling them about a haunted house she’d visited a town over, and that had really been haunted. She’d thought it was a joke when her friends told her about it, and had tried to go inside, only to hear howling and banging on the floorboards, as well as bright yellow eyes glowing in the dark.

“Okay, so the howling and banging on the floorboards I’d believe as a ghost,” Stiles says as they make their way back to the car. He already has his phone out, sending a text to Scott with the address they’d managed to get out of the scared girl. “But glowing yellow eyes? That sounds like…”

“Not everything is werewolf related,” Derek reminds him. “It could be anything. Including just a trick of the light.”

“Maybe so,” Stiles says. “But I’m still letting Scott know just in case. He’s going to meet us there with back up.”

“I’m hoping that won’t be necessary,” Derek says as he gets into the car. He waits until Stiles is in to speak again. “We’re just going to check it out. That doesn’t mean this is our problem.”

“Sure, Der. Whatever you say.”

Stiles knows it’s probably weird to be excited about the prospect of a real haunted house, and that there’s a possibility that this really is nothing, but he still can’t help but hope. He doesn’t want anything dangerous. Just something different. Something interesting.

They park a few blocks from the house, just to be safe, while still keeping it in view. Scott is already there when they get there, leaning against the side of Lydia’s car with Lydia, Malia and Liam.

“So do you really think it’s haunted?” Scott asks, as soon as Stiles and Derek have reached them.

Stiles glances back at the house. It looks old, but not really run down. Then again he supposes houses don’t have to be falling apart to be haunted. For all he knows, ghosts could haunt mansions and the homes of rich people. His grins at the thought of a ghost haunting Jackson. He can only imagine what that would be like.

“I’m not sure, but it’s worth checking out,” Stiles says.

“He’s hoping for it to be haunted,” Derek tells them.

“Why would you want it to be haunted?” Liam asks. “We don’t even know how to fight ghosts.”

“Salt and iron,” Stiles says.

“This is real life and not a TV show, Stiles.” Lydia sighs.

“Those things could work,” Stiles says. “We just don’t know it because we’ve never dealt with a ghost before.”

“Well do you have either of those things?” Lydia asks.

Stiles gives her a sheepish smiles, “Maybe they have some in the house?”

“You think ghosts just keep salt and iron lying around in the house they’re haunting?”

Stiles shrugs, “There could be. It could have been there before the ghosts got there. You never know.”

“Let’s try and focus on what we’re going to do,” Derek says, attempting to get the conversation back on track.

“We’ll go investigate,” Scott says. If it is a ghost we’ll call Deaton and see if he knows anything.

“Why not just call him now?” Malia asks.

“Because if there isn’t a ghost it’s probably better not to ask if they exist or not,” Stiles says.

“Can we just got?” Liam asks. “It’s Halloween and I have plans.”

“Sure Liam,” Stiles says. “We’ll hurry up and take care of the ghost so you can get back to your date. That’s clearly the most important thing.”

“I didn’t say it was more important,” Liam mutters.

“We really should go,” Derek says, glancing around the street. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.

As they make their way towards the house, the wolves keep an ear out for anything suspicious. For a while it’s silent. Until they reach the driveway and then the howling starts. Scott, Derek, and Liam share a look, each one clearly confused.

“It sounds like a werewolf,” Malia says. “Not a ghost.”

“We don’t know what ghosts sound like,” Stiles says.

“Maybe not,” Lydia says. “But I’m pretty sure it’s not the same as a werewolf.”

They jump when something starts banging inside the house. “We should go in,” Scott says.

“What happened to calling Deaton?” Liam asks.

“We don’t know what’s in here,” Derek says. “Just that it’s something. There’s no point in involving him yet.”

“At least I told Mason, so if I die they know where to find my body.”

“You’re not going to die,” Stiles says, clapping Liam on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

“I looked up some information on the house,” Lydia tells them, staring down at her fun with her brow furrowed. “It says the owner died a couple years ago and it’s been empty ever since. What’s interesting is before that the bank was threatening to take it away.”

“Huh,” Stiles says, eyeing the house curiously. It’s nice. He can understand how one person might not able to afford it by themselves. “So what? Maybe a werewolf ghost?”

“There are different kinds of ghosts?” Malia asks. “Why does no one tell me these things?”

“There aren’t different kinds of ghosts,” Derek says. “Because there aren’t ghosts.”

“But…” Stiles tries, only to be cut off by Derek.

“Did they ever find a body?” Derek asks Lydia.

Lydia shakes her head. “They never found one. Just apparent eye witness accounts of a car going off a cliff.” The car was pretty much a burned out wreck. There wasn’t a big investigation.”

“You found all that on your phone?” Scott asks.

“You can find pretty much anything if you know where to look,” Lydia says. “And I do.”

The howling and banging draw louder, and seem to be closer this time. Stiles frowns as he looks at the house, “So what are we thinking here?”

“I have my suspicions but I’d rather check the house first to confirm it,” Derek says.

There are now groans happening as well as the banging. When Stiles looks in the window he almost jumps when he catches a glimpse of yellow eyes. They’re gone as quick as they appear. Stiles would think he was imagining them if the others didn’t seem to have seen them as well.

“Were those…”

“Gold eyes that looked like a werewolves?” Derek asks. “Yeah I’d say so.”

Stiles wonders if Derek is thinking back to their conversation earlier, and how he’d easily brushed the thought of this being a werewolf aside. “The whole werewolf thing doesn’t seem so crazy now, does it?” Stiles asks.

The banging happens just on the other side of the door, along with some pained groans. “Whatever this is doesn’t like that we’re here,” Scott says.

“Goooo,” a voice wails from inside the house. “Goooo!”

Stiles snorts, “As if that’s going to work on us.”

“It’s kind of working on me,” Liam says. When the others look at him, he shrugs. “I don’t like ghosts.”

“It’s not a ghost,” Lydia says.

Scott brings a finger up to his lips, telling everyone to be quiet. He gestures towards the door and then behind him. Stiles is pretty sure he’s telling them all to follow him, so he gets behind Scott, with Derek right behind him and the others filing in. Scott opens the door and slowly steps inside. Before Stiles can even enter the house, Scott is being thrown against the wall. Stiles winces at the sound of his body hitting the wood. Derek pushes past Stiles and runs into the house, his shift taking over as he faces whatever threat is inside. Stiles runs in after him, his eyes scanning the dark room. He can’t see anything. Right about now is one of those times he wishes he had enhanced senses.

“Can you see anything?” he whispers to Derek.

Derek gives a barely there nod, but when he speaks he says, “I’m not sure. It might be too dark, right Liam?”

Liam looks confused for a moment before he catches up to what’s going on, “No, no I can’t see anything either.”

“Is he alright?” Stiles calls to Malia.

“I’m fine,” Scott says, hissing as he gets to his feet. “By back hurts a bit, but nothing is broken.”

“Yet,” a voice calls from the shadows, “But all of you will be hurt much worse than that if you don’t leave.”

“Yeah I don’t think we’re going anywhere,” Derek says. “And I really don’t think you’ll be able to take all of us. So why don’t you just show yourself Leonard?”

“Leonard?” Malia asks.

“The guy who owns the house,” Lydia tells her.

“I thought he was dead?”

“That’s what I wanted the world to think,” the voice says again, as yellow eyes appear in the shadows, drawing closer to them, until a face emerges. “It was going well until now.”

“Why pretend to be dead?” Malia asks.

“Because I couldn’t afford to live here anymore and the bank was threatening to take my house away,” Leonard says. “My parents lived in this house. I grew up here. I wasn’t going to lose it. So I found a way to keep it.”

“You faked your death and then made the house seemed haunted to stop anyone from coming near it,” Lydia says.

“And it had been working until you all showed up,” Leonard mutters. His eyes are back to normal now. His face looks drawn and tired. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d quite like to get back to scaring off the children. Tonight’s my best chance of getting word out.”

“This isn’t a way to live,” Derek tells him. Stiles wonders if he’s thinking back to the poor conditions he’s had to live in. “Trust me, I know. You don’t have running water. How do you even eat?”

“I make do,” Leonard says. “I have a friend that knows I’m alive and brings me food. I sleep there sometimes and can shower and use their couch if I want. It’s fine. I don’t mind it. Not if I get to keep the house.”

“What if there was another way?” Derek asks.

“What?”

Stiles has an idea of what Derek is going to suggest before he even does it. “With the rumors of it being haunted, the value of the house has to have gone down. They’ll probably sell it for cheap.”

“I don’t have a job,” Leonard says. “Or the money to buy it back.”

“I do.”

And that is how Derek winds up buying Leonard’s house from the bank, and signing it over to him. Leonard re-emerges to claim the house, giving some excuse about feeling bad that he was going to lose the house and going to stay with a family friend in Northern California. He says that he had no idea people thought he was dead. Stiles watches in amusement as he signs the papers for the house and hugs Derek, only to be surrounded by people from the community.

When Derek joins him, he’s smiling. He wraps his arms around Stiles pulling him close. Stiles smiles and brings a hand up to card through Derek’s hair while the other rests on the back on his neck.

“I know why you did this, and I’m proud of you,” Stiles tells him. “You’re a good man, Derek Hale.”

Don’t you forget it,” Derek tells him, pulling back with a grin.

Stiles doesn’t plan to. Not now. Not ever. He’s always been aware of what Derek has been through and the effect it’s had on him, but seeing him with Leonard has given him a whole new understanding. Derek just wants something safe and routine. Stiles thinks he can be okay with that, as long as it's with Derek.


End file.
